Apple headed to China to hammer out deets with China Unicom

A team from Apple will meet with a team from China Unicom this week in what is …

Senior executives from Apple reportedly headed to China this week to finalize a deal with China Unicom to distribute the iPhone. According to a new report from Sina Technology Zhiguo, Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of iPod and iPhone Product Marketing, is expected to be part of the negotiation team.

According to the report, translated by International Business Times, a source in China told Sina that "[t]heir visit aims to visit senior officials of China Unicom and discuss with them how iPhone should enter Chinese market." Apple is also expected to meet with officials at China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"Apple and Unicom have never stopped on the negotiations on cooperation and have joined hands to test iPhones," the source for Sina said. Sina recently published a series of photos of the iPhone model that Apple has made for the Chinese market, revealing that Apple removed WiFi capabilities as required by Chinese law and made some customizations to the iPhone OS requested by China Unicom.

This round of negotiations follows a March visit of execs from China Unicom—including vice president Li Gang—to Apple's Cupertino campus. However, a final deal has yet to be reached between the two companies. Apple has long looked towards entering the flourishing Chinese mobile market—the largest in the world. At its most recent quarterly earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook called China a "priority project" and said that Apple hopes to have the iPhone launch there "within a year."